Social networking your way
Where to find it: www.ning.com
Who runs the site: Gina Bianchi and a guy named Marc, whose last
name I couldn’t find online, founded Ning in 2004 as a way for
people to create their own social networks online.
Who is likely to use the site: People who are into online social
networks, but who are sick of MySpace and Facebook
– or those who want to create their own private network.
Social networking your way
Where to find it: www.ning.com
Who runs the site: Gina Bianchi and a guy named Marc, whose last name I couldn’t find online, founded Ning in 2004 as a way for people to create their own social networks online.
Who is likely to use the site: People who are into online social networks, but who are sick of MySpace and Facebook – or those who want to create their own private network.
Pros: The way Ning works is that users can create their own social network around something they like so they don’t have to sort through millions of users to find their friends.
There are thousands of networks on Ning already, and each one gets a unique URL and users can create their own name for their network. Some of the highlighted networks are for fans of author James Patterson, a group that loves hair metal bands, and a group of gamers.
Most of the networks have a few thousand members, and they already have something in common, so it might be easier to meet new people than other social networking sites.
Cons: If you aren’t creating your own network, the site seems a little hard to navigate to find other networks to join. A search for David Sedaris, one of my favorite authors, the site returned 28 pages of results – none of which were about David Sedaris. And Facebook and MySpace essentially have internal networks that people can join, anyway.
